1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a portable computer for automatically controlling direction of infrared signal direction for transmission and reception, and more particularly, relates to a portable computer and method for automatically controlling the direction of an infrared beam for convenient and effective wireless data communication between the portable computer and peripheral devices.
2. Related Art
Computer systems which typically include a display unit, input devices such as a keyboard, a central processing unit (CPU) and data storage devices (e.g., floppy or hard disk drive), are now used in practically every aspect of modern life. Computer systems are available in all shapes, sizes, and vary greatly in terms of function, power and speed. Likewise, peripheral devices such as printers, modems, graphics, scanners, text scanners, code readers, magnetic card readers, monitors, voice command interfaces, external storage devices, keyboards etc. . . are becoming increasingly ubiquitous. Both the computer systems and peripheral devices have become dramatically smaller and more portable such as those laptops, notebooks and even hand held computers.
Despite the reduction in computer size, the computer system still must physically interface with the peripheral devices. Dedicated cable is still necessary to physically connect the computer system to each peripheral device for data communication. If there are many peripheral devices for use with the computer system, there must be as many cables connected to the computer system. The physical cable connections between the computer system and peripheral devices can be costly and inconvenient. Moreover, the computer system and peripheral devices are also bound by their physical locations.
One recent solution to eliminate the use of cables for connecting the computer system, particularly portable computer, to peripheral devices as well as to other computer systems is to establish wireless infrared communication via a wireless area network as disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,099,346 and 5,247,380 for Infrared Communication Network issued to Lee et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,440,559 for Portable Wireless Communication Device issued to Gaskill, U.S. Pat. No. 5,564,020 for Apparatus For Reducing Interference Between A Computer Device And A Radio Transceiver Utilizing Separated Units With An Infrared Link issued to Rossi, U.S. Pat. No. 5,636,264 for Radio Telephone System Which Utilizes An Infrared Signal Communication Link issued to Sulavuori, U.S. Pat. No. 5,668,977 for Dockable Computer System Capable Of Electric And Electromagnetic Communication issued to Swanstrom et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,682,157 for Frequency-Alternating Synchronized Infrared issued to Asmussen et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,682,379 for Wireless Personal Local Area Network issued to Mahany et al. Generally, both the computer system and peripheral devices contain respective infrared transceiver units for data communication over an infrared communication link. No longer is the user required to keep the computer system within cable length distance of the appropriate connection. Portable computer is free to move anywhere within the wireless area.
We have observed however, that most portable computers using conventional infrared transceiver units for communication with peripheral devices require the user to manually control the direction and the position of the transceiver contained in each computer for data transmission and reception. This is because the transceiver of each peripheral device can receive an infrared signal only when it is within an infrared range of the portable computer. The difficulty for the user to manually control the receiving direction of an infrared signal is even more profound when the distance between the transmitter and the receiver of the portable computer and peripheral devices is far extended.